Gardaí organise resistance to reserve force

GARDAÍ will begin organising their opposition to plans for a Garda Reserve at the first of a series of protest meetings next week.

Rank-and-file gardaí as well as sergeants and inspectors from the north-west will attend the first of four regional meetings in the Sligo Park Hotel on Monday evening.

Garda Representative Association president Dermot O’Donnell said: “We will be giving our members as much information as we have up to now - that the Garda Reserve will be virtually untrained, that they will have full police powers and that they will not have to observe the same residential disqualification as qualified gardaí.

“We want gardaí to be as fully informed about this ridiculous proposal as possible. We hope that the meetings will also result in an improved public awareness of the fact that Mr McDowell’s proposals will result in neighbour being able to arrest neighbour.”

The meeting will hear the GRA and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have formulated a joint strategy of opposition. It is believed they are considering a policy of non-cooperation which would make the introduction of reserves virtually impossible.

If that happened, it would be the biggest show of defiance by gardaí since the “blue flu” action over pay disputes in 1998.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell has told Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to make plans for the recruitment of 900 reserves by September of this year and to subsequently build up to a total force of 4,000.

AGSI president Joe Dirwan has dismissed the idea as a “mad hatter” scheme that would dilute the force’s professionalism. It is feared members of the reserve, who would work a few days a month, would have minimal training while enjoying extensive powers.